Introduction Of ARKit Into iOS

In 2017 Apple inaugurated the Steve Jobs theatre and held its first keynote event where they announced various new devices from iPhone X to iPhone 8.

We also got new iOS 11 for this event. There were lots of new features in this operating system like:

• ARKit.
• Automatic Setup.
• Document Scanning In Notes.
• Files App For iPad.
• Indoor Maps / Lane Guidance.
• Inline Drawing And Instant Markup In Notes Using The Apple Pencil.
• iPad Multitasking.
• Live Photo Editing Options and many more.

We are going to focus on one of the core features - Augmented Reality support in the applications which uses ARKit(a new framework for creating augmented reality)

Advantages of the ARKit

• ARKit is supported on all devices which have A11, A10 or A9 chips and which run on iOS 11.

• ARKit enables face tracking with iPhone X.
• ARKit tracks the environment and places a virtual object with great accuracy using VIO(Visual Inertial Odometry).
• ARKit can estimate the amount of light in each scene and manage to light on virtual object accordingly.
• ARKit also has capabilities to analyze the horizontal planes to place virtual objects.

Tools required to start with ARKit

For native application development we need following tools:

XCode 9: Latest version of Xcode contains ARKit for building AR apps and it also creates an application for all Apple platforms.

iOS 11: If Apple device is not having iOS 11, then AR application will not be able to run.

We also need to understand what ARKit consist of before starting with an augmented reality mobile app:

SCNScene: SCNScene consist of geometries, camera, and lights as attributes. It is a hierarchy of nodes which forms a displayable 3D scene.

3D Object: Is a virtual object displayed on the screen in a real app.

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